As the birthplace of the Kellogg and Post companies, Battle Creek has certainly earned the nickname Cereal City.
“I can remember years ago buying some Great Grains and somebody came up to me said, ‘Way to go, I work there.’”
But decades later, Russ Hawkins said he doesn’t hear that any more, nor does he smell the once-prevalent aroma of the baking, toasting or sugar-coating of cereal in Battle Creek.
“I always said it smelled like money. But I was just wondering if anything was still made here.”
From sanitarium to cereal
Michael McCullough is a local history expert with the Willard Library in Battle Creek.
McCullough said the city’s cereal production traces back to 1891, when entrepreneur Charles William Post sought treatment at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a renowned health facility run by brothers John Harvey and William Keith Kellogg.
"He had suffered one of already a couple of breakdowns. He was an incredibly hard worker. He was a entrepreneur. He was a prospector. And he was just one of those dynamo people," McCullough said.
"He came here on the Michigan Central Line and then couldn't get to the sanitarium under his own power. He had to go there on stretcher. He was in really bad shape. And he stayed there I think for 9 months. At which point Dr. John Harvey Kellogg famously gave up and told his wife that she should be prepared be for his end, that he wasn't going to live."
But C.W. Post recovered, and left the sanitarium with an idea: Postum, a grain-based, caffeine-free coffee alternative.
The sanitarium served a similar beverage, but Post hated its recipe, according to McCullough. Post introduced Postum in 1895, to great success.
McCullough said Post's new product benefitted from a growing desire for "healthier" products to meet the needs of an urbanizing nation.
"This was a time in America's history where we're really transitioning from a rural and agricultural economy to an industrial city economy. And there was a lot of national interest in healthier living," McCullough said.
"People were eating a high protein, high meat, diet, working hard labor. And as the economy changed to more of a factory or sedentary lifestyle, for people who are in business, that lifestyle was problematic."
Two years later, he introduced another product: a crunchy wheat and barley blend he called Grape-Nuts.
“It created what was effectively a boom, a gold rush. And there have been various, I've seen various numbers, but for sure there were some 80 cereal companies in Battle Creek after Post saw his initial success. He really demonstrated that there could be a market for this.”
The Kelloggs believed Post had stolen the ideas, as John Harvey Kellogg had been testing and serving coffee substitutes and flaked cereal at the sanitarium.
But McCullough said these recipes were never really a secret.
“The truth is that the sanitarium was a place of experimentation. They published a lot of a lot of articles about what they experimented on. And so, it wasn't exactly proprietary.”
Beaten to the punch, W.K. Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906, without his brother John Harvey, as he wanted to focus on the sanitarium.
“The Kellogg Brothers famously didn't speak for the last 20 years of John Harvey's life. Took a court battle for Will Keith to be able to use the Kellogg name and create what we know today as the Kellogg company.”
Also in 1906, W.K.’s new company would introduce Corn Flakes, igniting a war for America’s breakfast table between Post and Kellogg.
Sugar and cartoon mascots made the products more popular, and the baby boom drove demand.
In 1977, the New York Times reported that Battle Creek was producing more than half of all the cold cereal in the country.
As a result, the cereal industry became one of Battle Creek's biggest employers.
“The Kellogg company had probably 3,500 employees making cereal every day. It was a major employer for the city. And there was a lot of pride and a lot of rivalry between the employees of the different factories.”
But cereal consumption fell in the late 90s, as breakfast alternatives like granola and yogurt took off.
Factories closed, more production moved abroad or was automated, and over 1600 local workers lost their jobs at Kellogg alone.
And in 2023, Kellogg split into two companies. One, Kellanova, now owned by Mars, handles snack brands like Pringles and Pop Tarts.
Kellogg’s cereal brands were spun off into W.K. Kellogg Co, acquired last year by Italian candy maker Ferrero.
Cereal City no more?
Despite this, cereal is still being made in Battle Creek, including at the Post Consumer Brands plant.
Question-asker Russ and I visited the facility, where we met Site Vice President Todd Person.
We weren't allowed on the production floor, so Person took us to a recreation of CW Post’s Office, made to look as it did in the early 20th century.
Among the many pictures and artworks hanging on the walls was a painting of Post's daughter Marjorie and a Saint Bernard.
“That's when she was maybe 9 or 10 years old. She lived here until she was 14. And that iconic artwork then became the Grape Nuts commercial ad that was printed in in newspapers,” Person said.
"They actually commissioned that painting and then it was used in Grape Nuts ads after."
Another piece hung nearby, showing the layout of the community across the road, called the Post Addition.
"C.W. actually built a neighborhood for his employees. So back in the day, this was probably kind of out in the country and so he had built this neighborhood so that his employees could be right near the factory and work."
But as for Post’s current employees, Person said the plant's 590 employees are still hard at work making cereal.
“Over the years I think we've been maintaining at about 240 million pounds here for the last few years. It was probably a little bit higher maybe 10 to 15 years ago.”
And Russ was happy to hear it, especially after decades of job loses in Battle Creek across multiple different industries.
"In the 80s when we lost Eaton and Clark, that was maybe 5,000 jobs. I don't know. That was terrible," Russ said.
“I'm just glad to see that we're making something and exporting it out of the state and bringing in money into the state.”
As for W.K. Kellogg Co, it also still has a plant in Battle Creek, just up the road from Post.
Kellogg representatives weren’t able to schedule a visit by deadline, but in an email, spokesperson Stacy Flathau confirmed the company also still makes cereal in the Cereal City.
"Battle Creek remains an important part of our story. More than 120 years after W.K. Kellogg began making cereal here with the creation of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, we still have manufacturing operations in Battle Creek and the town continues to be home to our North American corporate headquarters," Flathau said.
"Battle Creek isn't just where our company was founded, it's the community that helped shape the cereal industry and earned its reputation as 'Cereal City.' We're proud to carry forward W.K. Kellogg's legacy here through our employees, our operations and our ongoing commitment to the community."
